i cannot look up to some dickhead whose film adventures are just a diversion from a comfortable life. i'm looking at you sofia cuntpola.

It's great when someone coming from little or no resources can transcend their situation and become a great filmmaker anyway. So many of the more talented filmmakers today DID come from means though, and coming from means allowed them the time and resources to develop their craft in the first place. Remember all those stories about PT running around, stopping traffic in the street, "anything for a shot"? How his dad was one of the first guys on the block to own a VCR?

If someone comes from means and has no talent to go along with the opportunities presented to them because of it, yeah, that's annoying. Alexander Payne, Sofia Coppola, etc. - they have unique voices and something to say, and they obviously work hard on the projects they create and care about the quality of their films. You're hating in the wrong direction, man.

While Alexander Payne has carved out a niche for himself as a filmmaker sharply attuned to the nuances of human relationships, he's always had a couple projects brewing that are wildly different than the milieu he's become known for. Most famously would be "Downsizing," a high-concept social satire that was to star Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon and Sacha Baron Cohen, following a married couple who are low on money and decide they can have a much nicer life retiring as little people. The sci-fi-ish film that Payne called his potential "epic masterpiece" didn't come together due to how it expensive it would've been and it has been on the backburner. So too has "Wilson," an adaptation of the Daniel Clowes comic. But a new project has arrived, which looks more likely to get greenlit than those ventures.

Fox Searchlight, who has teamed in the past with Payne on "Sideways" and "The Descendants," are set to work with him again on "The Judge's Will." Based on a New Yorker story by the late Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (who penned scripts for "A Room With A View," "Howard's End" and "The Remains Of The Day" among others), the film will tell the tale of an elderly Bombay judge who looks to ensure both his young Bombay wife and mistress are cared for after he passes away. And outside of the exotic setting, it seems like the kind of low key, human story that's right in Payne's wheelhouse.

Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing” is coming back to life with Matt Damon in the lead role. Payne had been developing the project since “Sideways," but because of its scale and technological issues—he wasn't wasn’t well-versed in the latter at the time—he shelved it and instead took on “The Descendants” and then “Nebraska.”

Deadline, which broke the news, seems to have forgotten the logline, but we read the script ages ago. Below is what we wrote way back when as a kind of synopsis. Essentially, the film is a kind of dystopian satire with geo-political connotations, but much like Payne's work often is, it's personal and intimate.

"Downsizing," after all, starts off in Norway and takes place in a not-too-distant future where humans are now able to shrink themselves to 1/8 their size as a means to battle over-consumption and the rapid depletion of earth's natural resources, thanks to enlightened hippie-like Scandinavian scientists. "Smalls" get small, then become members of small cities (the main characters moves to a city called Leisureland) protected by large nets (keeps the bugs out) and built like Disney's Celebration Town (all planned, all pre-fabricated). Small people cash-in their savings and retire small; 1 big dollar equals 500 small dollars. Smalls live on less food, less land, and produce less trash. As the story progresses, Americans are free to get small, but in Europe, where resources are beginning to truly run out, legislation arises suggesting 40% of the population get shrunk (whether they like it or not). For the big, the world grows smaller and scarier; for the small, the world grows bigger and scarier.

The original cast featured Paul Giamatti, Sacha Baron Cohen, Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, and Gong Li when it was set up at Fox Searchlight, but the trade mentions none of these names. But it appears the more bankable Damon has been set up in the lead over Giamatti, as a man who shrinks himself to a miniscule size in order to have what he believes will be a better life.

Flips me out, how terrible the characters of Election are as people, and how well written they are. Election spoiler. Dude throws a drink at a limo and darts off, which is random crazy shit people with personal problems do, then he stares at a girl holding up her hand to answer his question at the museum, he stares at her with agitation, fade to black, "Anybody?" and credits roll. That's the end of the movie. And the other characters -- everyone is imperfect, and the narrative is about imperfections changing the directions of other people's lives.

Spoilers for Nebraska and SidewaysThey're more terrible as people compared to, for example, characters in Nebraska, the lives of which characters one might call imperfect, but I wouldn't quite call the characters imperfect, except the greedy outsiders. A huge narrative component is whether the dad owed money or lent money. Same with Sideways, because apparently well you see that was just what was going on before Jack's marriage and he only said he loved Stephanie because he was feeling crazy one night I guess, I mean the guy was headed back to his marriage.

People are much more wicked in Election, wickedness is the motif, and the movie is entertaining and humorous and likeable. That's something. Good job Payne.

If you've had an ear tuned to the literary world over the past year or two, you'll likely have heard the name Karl Ove Knausgaard. He's the Norwegian author whose claim to fame is his six volume, no holds barred, dirty laundry and all autobiography "My Struggle," which has made him a sensation, and now he better get ready for some more attention.

Alexander Payne has signed up to direct "My Saga." The road trip movie will be based on Knausgaard's travel writing for New York Times magazine, which saw him journey through the northern United States, retracing the steps the Vikings took through the country. His work was published across two parts which you can read here and here. It seems like a good fit for the filmmaker who has spun previous on-the-road stories in "Sideways" and "Nebraska."

It's all early stages, and there's no writer attached yet, so this will be a while in coming. Next for Payne is "Downsizing" starring Reese Witherspoon, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Sudeikis. Production will begin this year for release in 2017.